Study: 12 percent of young moms use cellphones during sex — but why?

What is it about cellphones that boost people’s sex drives? Is it the wall that the phone puts up between you and your partner so intimacy doesn’t feel awkward? Is it the feeling of slight anonymity because text (or sext) receivers can’t always see your face? Is technology just more arousing than actual human touches? We don’t know, but according to this MSNBC report, a study finds that 12 percent of younger moms use their phones during sex.

The survey “Moms & Media 2” comes from Meredith Parents Network, the publishing giant for Parents and American Baby magazines, but does not specify exactly what young moms between the ages of 18 to 35 are doing on their phones while they’re engaging in sexual activity. It would somewhat make sense of the study counts phone sex or streaming pornography, but with past studies suggesting that Facebook is more addictive that sex itself, we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s more along the lines of what they were actually doing.

“When we saw the results we were wondering the same exact thing,” a Meredith Parents spokesperson for Network told MSNBC. “Unfortunately we don’t have any anecdotal data about the how’s or the why’s.”

With the demographic group growing up around the rise of the Internet Age, perhaps their brains are wired and embedded with the need to consume media at every instance they find the chance. The survey also found that these so-called “Millennial moms” preferred to use their phones to shop, with 81 percent agreeing to the statement. Despite the apparent Facebook addiction, 72 percent reported that the constant Facebook interface and feature changes frustrate them, and 53 percent thinks Facebook is a waste of time.

“Today’s moms are media omnivores,” says Carey Witmer, EVP/President, Meredith Parents Network. “Controlling their voracious diet is so important to them that they are constantly creating new rules about how and when media intermingles with their busy lives via their various devices, screens and networks.”